Repair efforts become focus of Thomas Fire as command shifts hands

The Thomas Fire became California's largest officially recorded fire on Dec. 22, 2017, when surpassed the 273,000-plus acre Cedar Fire.
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The Ojai Valley last week as seen from Highway 150 east of town. Hillsides charred by the Thomas Fire can be seen along the route where the fire burned fiercely between Santa Paula and Ojai.(Photo: GRETCHEN WENNER/THE STAR)Buy Photo

As the Thomas Fire nears full containment, many firefighters are expected to be released in coming days.

Jim Mackensen, an incident spokesman and retired captain from the Cosumnes Fire Department, said about half of the more than 600 fire personnel still assigned to the incident could be released before New Year’s Day.

With the change in focus from firefighting to repair, command of the incident will also shift on Saturday evening from the Incident Command Team of several agencies to Los Padres National Forest, Mackensen said.

The blaze stood at 281,893 acres in size and 92 percent contained as of Friday, the incident’s 26th day.

The Thomas Fire, now the state’s largest blaze officially on record, started Dec. 4 near Santa Paula, taking two lives, destroying 1,063 structures and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Mackensen said fire personnel will concentrate their efforts on fixing terrain affected by fire-suppression efforts.

“That’s the main focus,” the spokesman said.

In fighting the blaze, crews created or dug out approximately 200 miles of trench-like dozer lines used as fire breaks.

With most of the active fire extinguished, the terrain work must be undone to prevent damage from rain as the lines create channels in which water could collect and flow forcefully, increasing erosion.

“Suppression repair techniques, such as constructing water bars to dissipate water or slow its flow, as well as returning or scattering shrubs and herbaceous plants along created contingency lines, reduces erosion and returns a natural seed source to the environment,” fire officials from the U.S. Forest Service said in a news release.

In addition to repair efforts, a federal Burned Area Emergency Response team and a California Watershed Emergency Response team were due to perform assessments of the burn severity and identify areas at risk for flooding and debris flow, the news release stated.

The teams often include hydrologists, soil scientists, biologists, botanists and road engineers. The data will be used by the Ventura County Office of Emergency Services to develop preparedness and response plans, fire officials said.

The Thomas Fire command center, which had been at the Ventura County Fairgrounds since the beginning of the blaze, will be closed Saturday night and moved to the Los Prietos Ranger Station off Paradise Road in Santa Barbara County, Mackensen said.

The new command center should be up and running by Sunday, he said.

There are still hot spots in the remote areas of Bear Heaven and Rose Valley in Los Padres National Forest, although the fire is slow-moving with sparse burnable material and is well within containment lines, Mackensen said.

Firefighters are going to let it burn itself out, adding that the areas will be monitored, he said.

Flare-up near Santa Barbara

On Friday morning, a smoldering area of the fire came back to life when light winds ignited a patch of unburned vegetation, sending plumes of smoke into the air over Santa Barbara, according to Mackensen.

Initial reports indicated the fire was started by a burning log that had rolled down into brush, but officials said Friday afternoon that that appeared not to be the case.

The flames spread near Gibraltar Road, a windy mountain pass loaded with million-dollar homes surrounded by grass, bushes and trees. No homes were immediately in danger but crews weren’t taking any chances, Mackensen said.

Two firefighter hand crews, one engine and two helicopters worked to put out the flames before they posed a significant threat, he said.

“Probably the biggest takeaway from this is it’s indicative of the very dry conditions,” Mackensen said. “It’s not out till it’s out.”

The progress of the fire — estimated to be between a tenth- and a quarter-acre — was stopped by 1 p.m., Mackensen said.